Mizzou football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz speaks to media at SEC Kickoff Media Days in Atlanta on July 17, 2025.Mizzou football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz speaks to media at SEC Kickoff Media Days in Atlanta on July 17, 2025.
Football

Mizzou Football Meets the Media at SEC Kickoff in Atlanta

ATLANTA — Mizzou football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz and student-athletes Daylan Carnell, Connor Tollison and Zion Young represented the Tigers on Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park to close out the fourth and final day of SEC Football Kickoff, the Southeastern Conference's annual preseason football media event. Coach Drinkwitz and Mizzou's three players recorded segments on multiple ESPN and SEC Network platforms, including "SEC This Morning," "SEC Now" and "Marty and McGee." Coach Drinkwitz's conversation with Marty Smith and Ryan McGee will appear on one of two special episodes of "Marty & McGee: Talkin' Season" on Aug. 11 or Aug. 12.

ATLANTA — Mizzou football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz and student-athletes Daylan Carnell, Connor Tollison and Zion Young represented the Tigers on Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park to close out the fourth and final day of SEC Football Kickoff, the Southeastern Conference's annual preseason football media event. Coach Drinkwitz and Mizzou's three players recorded segments on multiple ESPN and SEC Network platforms, including "SEC This Morning," "SEC Now" and "Marty and McGee." Coach Drinkwitz's conversation with Marty Smith and Ryan McGee will appear on one of two special episodes of "Marty & McGee: Talkin' Season" on Aug. 11 or Aug. 12.

Coach Drinkwitz was the first of four coaches to take the podium in the main media room on Thursday, touching on various topics. Here are some highlights from Coach Drinkwitz's time at the podium:

On the team's QB competition:
"We got three quarterbacks, all a little bit different, all with some very good strengths. Obviously Sam Hornis a guy who has been in our system for a long time. Dual-threat player, plays baseball at a high level. Coming back from Tommy Johns surgery. Had an outstanding bowl prep, really good spring. Has really excelled in his maturation. One thing most people don't know about Sam, he's a type one diabetic. Since he's been in college, he's learned to adapt, train, develop, adjust. He's really done a lot of good things. Understands the system. 

"Beau Pribula came in with the right mindset. Nothing given, everything earned. Works extremely hard developing his craft. He's a guy who spends a lot of extra time up there. Has a chip on his shoulder, the right kind of chip. Does a good job leadership-wise. Worked with him a couple days at Harmons. Impressed with his ability to connect with our team. 

"Matt Zollers throws it as well as any quarterback I've ever seen. Coming back from an ankle surgery. You can tell he's adjusting to the speed of college football. Very excited about that room and know whoever ends up emerging as the quarterback is going to be in a really good position because he doesn't have to do it all by himself. He's going to have a really good defense. He's got a great supporting cast around him."

On Horn being chosen by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 17th round of the MLB Draft:
"What an awesome accomplishment, awesome opportunity for that young man to be that good of an athlete, to be able to play, I think he threw 15 innings this year and had an outstanding season. We're so proud of him to be able to compete in two sports. Sam has been adamant this whole time to compete and win the job in the SEC, play quarterback at the highest level. Had conversations with his representatives. He was going through his Tommy John surgery, or the rehab process going through spring. That really hasn't changed. We had discussed it, Sam had relayed the message, his agent had relayed the message to all the baseball organizations that he was going to play football this fall. So nothing's changed. I called him the day of the draft to make sure he was having a draft party. I called him after he got drafted. I told him the day he got drafted I was proud of him, and I would see him at 6:30 workouts in the morning."

On transfer safety Jalen Catalon:
"Jalen Catalon is a guy that played against us in 2020 during COVID year. Didn't play in the first half because of a targeting penalty in May. He came on and was an elite player. Has been an elite player for a long time. Coach Saban all summer, he calls and does scouting reports with all the head coaches. Not to get back into coaching, want to clear that up for Greg McElroy. Does that to make sure he has an edge on the competition. First person he asked about was Jalen Catalon. He said, 'Man, that guy has played a lot of really good football.' You could see that in the spring ... he's got great instincts. He understands, diagnoses what offenses are trying to do. He's got a knack for finding the football in the air. He's really good at blitzing. We play a lot of single-high defense, use that safety to insert, which is something that Jalen can really do. We're very excited about what he brings to that room. We lost a lot of career starts with Joseph Charleston. We needed somebody in that back end. Communication is so vital in that position. Very, very proud and excited about JC, what he's going to bring to our football team. He's been awesome."

On transfer running back Ahmad Hardy:
"Ahmad Hardy, what a great young man. I think one of the coolest things about him is I knew (Louisiana-Monroe coach) Brian Vincent. Brian and I have a relationship dating back to our time when I was at App State and he was at UAB learning the outside zone. It was awesome to be able to call him and ask what are his strengths, weaknesses, feel for this scheme. What couldn't be any more complimentary of Ahmad Hardy? He's an outstanding young man. A heck of a horseman. Dude loves horse, rides horses. Has gotten Kevin Coleman on the back of a couple of horses. He love to go fish. He and Santana Banner go fishing all the time. In fact, went fishing in the community pond in Bluff Creek. Had to apologize to my homeowners association about that. They caught a lot of fish. Really excited about that young man. He has great burst, understands the scheme and how to run it. So very proud of him."

On earning respect in the SEC: 
"If you get caught up, Coach Saban calls it rat poison. I think it's rat poison either way. Praise and blame are both the same. You can't care about it either way. We have a 'something to prove' mindset. Whether you're talking about our coaching staff, our players, we all have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. At the end of the day, two-minute drive, fourth quarter, that's not what you're thinking about. You think about your trust and belief in each other, doing your job at a higher level. You can think about it as temporary motivation, but in the key moments it's more about the belief in each other. That's really what drives us.

"It's our belief in our brotherhood, in our Elite Edge Program, our belief in our 'always compete' mentality, the development of trust and respect we have with each other. It's having fun while we're doing this that really drives us in our success. Other people's opinions... Somebody asked me what the difference was in my five years being here. In the first couple years, I cared what y'all thought about me. Now I don't. I don't care. I'm here to represent my family, my wife and my four beautiful daughters. I'm here to represent the University of Missouri and make our football team proud. Outside of that, I really don't care what anybody else thinks."

On transfer quarterback Pribula: 
"Beau, when we first talk about recruits, it's all about the right fit for us: focus, intangibles, talent and tough. When you talk about the quarterback position, there are five traits you're looking for. Beau had those traits. As a program, as an offense, you have to design to a quarterback's strengths. I don't think when you watch the tape, there's not an inability for Beau to throw, he just didn't quite have the opportunities. I would say after this spring, I'm as confident as ever that Beau is a very talented passer. I don't really have any reservations about that. Obviously when you're recruiting out of the portal, it does happen fast. If you have somebody on campus, you have to close 'em pretty quickly. Beau, I will give a lot of credit to Beau and his maturity. He had a process that he wanted to go through. He wanted to see three different schools and then make a decision. We made an impression."